Cousin Fun!

Caleb does not have many cousins and is the oldest grandchild in all our families.  Brydon's oldest sister has 2 children that we meant 3 years ago, and his youngest sister just recently had a second baby but we have not met her children yet.  On my side, there is only one cousin.  Braydon is 18 months old and is a character.  Of course since Caleb is an only child, hanging out with an 18 month old took a little getting used to but they started to figure each other out by the end. 

Braydon building blocks with Uncle Josh.

Caleb learned how much fun knocking things over is for a 1 1/2 year old!

I am grateful Uncle Roy had so much energy.

Check out that cute mug!

We learned quickly that Braydon loved to copy everything Caleb did.  It was so funny to watch them and see what they did.  I had to take this video while we were driving in the car together.  Braydon would do anything Caleb did and they are so adorable.  Course I am a bit partial to them both.
Such a cousin moment!

Two of the cutest boys ever!  

They are sweet little friends and I am so glad Caleb has got a cousin like Braydon!  Hope we have many more fun adventures together.

30 Never Looked So Good!

Last week Brydon turned the big

3-0!

It was an exciting day and Caleb and I were ready to let everyone know of the big day.

Brydon likes to keep his birthday very low key and quiet.  Usually I oblige, but this year I just couldn't do it.  Weeks before his birthday, I was able to talk to some of the Public Health troops and discuss plans on how to attack the Clinic and make sure that Brydon felt our love all day.  I was bummed when the Group Commander turned down my request to put up signs all over the Clinic but was happy that I was given permission to decorate and put signs all over the Public Health hallway.  While Brydon was at church meetings the night before, two sweet Public Health Techs meet me at the clinic and let me in so we could decorate the hallway and Brydon's office.  We got signs, balloons, and streamers.  Caleb had a blast!  It was great!  We got it all decorated and I even got a 5 year old (who doesn't keep secrets very well) to bed before Dad came home that night. 

That night, Brydon asked me to not bring any cake to work and just keep his birthday quiet as usual.  Oh what I would have given to see his face when he walked into his hallway and found all this!

 

Caleb painted this cute pot for Daddy and we just had to fill it with his favorite candy.  And of course Daddy needed a cool new sign on his door.  

I didn't quite mean for the colors to be red and green Christmas colors but oh well! 

We had streamers and signs everywhere. 

 

Wasn't he a cute kid!  I love those chunky baby cheeks! 

We had to visit Dad in the morning quick to give him a hug and see his big smile.  He totally secretly loved all the attention and felt very loved!  Everyone who visited Public Health knew it was his birthday and everyone who worked in Public Health sure thought it was fun to get him good this year. 

Later I was able to surprise him with an adult dinner at Outback with a group of friends.  I had a lot of fun planning this birthday. It isn't everyday you get to turn 30!  We had to help him turn 30 in style and with a lot of love.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Celebrating the 4th!

This area is a bit surprising.  They love the Air Force Base and host great Air Force events but don't do much for the 4th of July.  I don't know if it is a Texas thing (because the stores are full of red, white, and blue stuff with "I Love Texas" on them) or if it is just this area.  However we did find a great little parade in Buffalo Gap.  It was about 5-10 minutes long, but we found a parade!

This was the most decorated and elaborate display of the parade.

They kiddos had fun and that is the most important part!

    

After the parade, the city did a reading of The Declaration of Independence at the Historic Buffalo Gap Village.  Then they rang the bell for each state.  Caleb got to ring the bell for South Dakota!

You can't celebrate the 4th without some yummy, yummy food.  We decided to try out some new things this year.  I think they turned out well and it was a lot of fun.

Red, White, and Blue Cupcakes!  I found a new recipe for butter cream frosting and it as amazing!  I am coming to appreciate frosting more.

Red, White, and Blue Fruit Salad....hmmm.  I saw this idea on my friends blog and had to especially try out her secret fruit salad sauce.  It was really good.  You can check it out at http://www.familyeverafterblog.com/2012/06/simple-summer-fruit-salad-with-zing.html

I was SO EXCITED to make these drinks!  I think the are so neat!  I loved the star ice cubes too.  They even tasted good!

We had a great BBQ with our friends the Bradshaws.  It was a beautiful day filled with a small parade, swimming, wonderful food, fireworks, friends, and fun.

We tried making BBQ ribs for the first time.  We even made our own BBQ sauce.  It was so yummy!  We made the Shiner Bock BBQ sauce from Chili's.  It has just the right amount of kick to it.  I had to buy beer in the grocery store for the first time.  Apparently I don't look like I need to be carded anymore, I was kind of wondering what it would be like to be carded in the grocery store.  Oh well!  It was weird to buy beer though.  The ribs turned out great and we will be making lots of this BBQ sauce again.

We were actually able to buy a few fireworks for the first time ever this year.  This was Caleb's first time ever having fireworks at home.  We got some snappers and the kids loved those.  Then we did smoke bombs and sparklers.  None of our kids had been exposed to setting off fireworks so it was funny to watch them be nervous and curious about how this works.

   

They caught on to the sparklers and really enjoyed them.  The Dads most definitely remembered how fun fireworks could be and had a lot of fun playing with fire.  We only had to remind them a few times to be good examples!

We did purchase two fountains, but had to go outside the city limits to set them off.  They were actually really good fountains!

Hope everyone had as wonderful of a 4th of July as we did!

Christmas Highlights

Our 2011 Christmas Highlights!

The Annual Meeting with Santa

The Christmas Eve Gingerbread Pancakes!  The mold worked for 2 years in a row!!  Oh Yeah!

Christmas Eve Potato Soup Dinner

Decorating Cookies for Santa

We were given some Reindeer food (oats with glitter) to sprinkle on the lawn for Santa's Reindeer.  Pretty cute idea!

Dear Santa. From Caleb. I want a John Deer Tractor.  Next year come faster.

Coming down the stairs Christmas morning

Exciting stuff from Santa!  Including a John Deer Tractor and a Remote Control Finn McMissle!  No Puppy but it worked out OK :)

Even stuff for Cooper!  He is such a silly dog.  He loved his toys so much that everywhere Caleb was playing you would find Cooper with 3 of his toys right in the middle of it.

Santa ate the cookies and left a little note with some goodies.

A tired boy with a John Deer Tractor

Brydon spoiled me with a Cricut this year!

I made Caleb a special extra soft and silky blanket.  He was so excited!

The Hot Wheels Wall Track!  A bit hit this year!

Right after opening presents, Caleb threw up all over and so I ended up going to church to give my talk and perform a musical number by myself.  Fortunately, Caleb recovered quickly and we had a wonderful Christmas dinner with the missionaries, a friend whose wife is deployed, and the Bradshaw family.  We had a great evening eating and playing games.  We couldn't have asked for a more fun and wonderful Christmas! 

We are truly blessed!